DanielG

I agree with what is being said here but after working with $49 combo sets for a long time that actually were just fine, I am really enjoying My first good (better) pole, a Dobyn's 735 glass. Ya it's a luxury for me but finally at age 64, the bend on this pole is so sweet. Smaller as well as larger fish are more 'fun' just because of it. That being said... there doesn't seem to be hundreds of dollars difference between the functionality of the cheaper pole compared to the Dobyns. The less expensive stuff gets you maybe 70% there. The higher priced stuff just adds some more to it in my opinion.

The scientific method works for me.... Sun's up.. the pink one looks good. Gettin windy. That rattly one maybe? Hmmm... not biting. I like blue. Maybe the fish do to. The water's really blue today... Green will clash. Ya, that'll get their attention.

Last spring I was leaning over the bow and a wave hit. $500 glasses plopped into the water and became invisible. They were 2 months old. Had to repurchase.... not a rod but.... Today I have my glasses chain on my dash. Never take the boat out without them on.

I think most all the fishing songs are compiled here.. Or at least a lot of them.

Isn't it all relative? Seems on some youtube vids the dinks they're pulling up are the hogs in my experience. Here, 2-3+ pounds here is pretty darn good. 1.5 is nice. 1 lbs is small but still fun. In some places these sizes would be used as bait. Like I said, all relative to location and experience?

I live in Maine. The oldest population in the country I've heard. We have lots of doctors in the more populated southern part of the state. Where I am a decent size hospital about every 25 miles. Everyone takes medicare. If they didn't they wouldn't have any patients. So, that's not an issue. I'll be on Medicare in a couple of months. I was a teacher for 30+ years but had to drop my medical when I retired... long story but it wasn't possible with the wife and the way it is set up in our state. Anyway, we went on Obamacare for three years, no choice. It has been really good coverage in both cost, coverage and availability. I know everyone says it sucks, but it is very good for anyone you ask around here who is on it. And yes, I know someone is paying for it, and I wish there was an alternative but it saved us when we needed it. The only downside was the year to year uncertainty of it being gutted.

The wife and I have had one very similar to this since 2010. We've taken it camping since 2010 and It's been to most states and about 50,000 miles. It shows little wear and has been great. When traveling and camping for weeks at a time the chair becomes very important. This one looks just like it but mine were purchased nine years ago so I can't say for sure. The 'trampoline' like back and seat is very comfortable and there are no bars under your legs pressing up against you. Here on Amazon as of this writing. $37

UP

I have a catamaran platform boat with a large canopy. The wife likes to go for a ride once and awhile while I fish and she has her own pole and gets excited when a fish gets on it. But she doesn't fish much. Then there is the other part of all this.... ~Hon, I'm going fishing.... "okay, be safe. Wear your preserver." ~Hon, I'm back (4 hours later). "Oh good, any bites?" (and she actually listens to all the fish tales and looks at the pictures." ~Hon, I'm thinking about getting my first casting setup. "That's nice." It's gonna be a bit expensive. The DC reel alone is $249. The I go into detail what it's all about, and she listens. "Sounds good." This is one of the things that make my better half better. The downside of all of this is I have to control my fish spending urges on my own. I can afford it but we're fairly frugal so I feel super guilty if I don't. I do pretty good checking myself though. She's a real gem.

If you don't consider height then you'll wipe-out and possibly break a leg or something.... wait... this isn't the skiing forum? How'd I get here? Nevermind....

Well, by October it will probably be in the driveway. Look for a white boathouse with a pink cottage way up on a hill with lots of trees by the water, just before that island. (Pink yes.... long story).

Ah... dare I mention it Patriots Yes, I'm from New England. I read that a survey showed only New England and Michigan like the Patriots (Brady is from Michigan). The survey also said that the reason they didn't like them was because they wanted someone else to get to the playoffs or Bowl for a change. Here, we love Brady and his deflated balls.

Well, I live here so I don't need speed or to launch it but once a year. It's made from a repurposed SolCat sailing catamaran. 18 foot pontoons. I refinished them, put a deck on, two 35 lb thrust minn kota's two 100 amp solar storage batteries with built in charger. The steering is a linear actuator, basically electric steering. Garmin striker V, and a quick retract canopy for open bow fishing and other bells and whistles. Goes about 6 hrs at 2.5 mph or much longer at slower speed. Trolling is good at about 1.5-2 mph. And yes that is a cord in the water charging the batteries. And a link to the build on instructables...

That would probably be at the lower end of the main lake nearer the bridge. I live about 200 ft from that rock pile. There are bass on the lake side of that pile (as opposed to the shore side). A lot of guys have Lunds I'm sure I saw yours.

Maybe this is naive but anyone thought of just a 4" pvc with a fitting with a screw on end cap? I just looked on Home depot's website. A pipe, end cap, and screw on fitting about $23. That with a couple of stainless band clamps to hold it on?? Of course it wouldn't lock, but a large hole drilled through the cap and pipe at an angle to put a padlock or some other fastener. Just sayin', as I don't have a need for this type of thing.

Ya, a word about lobsters. I've traveled all over the country. Maine lobsters are well known and expensive other places. Thing is, people think we have them all the time here. Maybe even three meals a day. Fact is, Maine people don't eat lobster too much. Expensive usually and their considered sort of a splurge... like NY'ers and caviar. They are good though aren't they. Sad thing is that the lobster industry here is dying fast. The warming waters in the gulf are cutting way down on the harvest. This causes the molting season to be off. Lobsters can't be shipped if they are soft shell. They'll die. As a result we can't ship out as many as we'd like any longer because of the warmer waters throwing things off. But, last year this didn't make much difference as China accounts for most of our sales.This year sales dropped 84% to China because of tariffs. China is going to Canada now for lobster because of the stiff tariffs and say they won't be back as they don't have to. Lobstermen are having to sell their lobsters to Canada to be processed at a super cut rate and Canada sells them to China. Boats are being sold and people going out of business up and down the coast. Weird scenario and sad. Heck, the lobster is on our license plate.

Hey, if you're ever up here again, I'm they guy in the converted sailing catamaran with the blue top used for fishing. If you see me you'll know me. I'm out on the lake a lot.

Getting back into this in my 60's after a 50 year hiatus from fishing I'm learning a lot the past couple of years. This month? Let me see. ~I learned how to thumb a casting reel. I only used spinning rigs before. I have been humbled by this endeavor. (full discloser, it's a curado DC so I'm cheating a bit). ~ Trolling down the middle of the lake in 50 feet of water with a 4ft diving crank bait catches more bass here than fishing the edges. ~ The fish travel in lanes on my lake. I'm learning them with the help of my Garmin. ~ Crappies get big as the summer progresses. This is the first time I've caught them. Years ago they were nonexistent here. Now their everywhere. ~ Crappies fight for a second then float on their side on the surface. Like hauling in a mass of weeds. It's as if they're saying, "okay, you got me, reel me in." ~ I learned that I love getting a hit in front of other fishermen that are in huge bass boats wearing sponsored spandex jackets. (I know this is strange). ?

Hi, I'm Dan. Glad to be here. I live on Mousam Lake in Southern Maine. It's a 4 1/2 mile flooded river that is still dammed up from when they were needed for woolen mills. The river forms a chain of 22 lakes and ponds. The one I live on is about 1/2 mile wide. I live in a family home on the lake. It was built in the 50's and I fished here as a kid a lot. Moved in to the place in 2002 and then retired a few years later. I'm 64 yrs old as of this writing and just started fishing again seriously about two years ago. The lake has bass, crappie, and pickerel. They stock it each year with trout and salmon. I don't catch the stocked stuff much but when I do they're big for this area. 3-5 lbs. The bass run about 1 1/2 to 4 lbs. The crappie, particularly later in the summer are dinner plate sized. I currently am using two dobyn's poles one glass, a shimano spinning reel and a new Curado dc bait caster that I'm getting used to. I have a fishing platform that I made from an old 18 foot sailing catarmeran pontoon boat. It's all electric. I'm here to learn and share some. I love this topic. Thanks in advance for all your advice.... The view this morning from my front porch, 6 am. It was a good fishing morning.

Yup.... It's nice when I want to really loosen it up to get long casts. I still use my thumb but the break helps a bit especially in mid cast, and after that when in everyday mode I don't have to deal with it much. Still getting used to it though.

How long did it take me to type this? About 10 minutes. I type fairly fast. At a standard size 12 font it's about 8" long. You must have your font size set at about 150 if it took 30 seconds to scroll the post! I trained my thumb. It took all of about 30 minutes. Then I set the reel and forgot about my thumb. I didn't need it. I thought, "this is cool". The DC isn't "pointless". It has a very specific point. It controls the cast and does it pretty good. It may be irrelevant if you don't want it but it's not pointless. I can start my boat motor with the pull cord but the electric start is nicer. Not pointless, just nicer. You can start the motor with a pull cord if you want. I'll turn the key. Just a choice. Why do I have the DC? Well, it works quite well. And I like techie stuff. Like a lot of people these days, my lights go on if I ask them to in the morning. They turn themselves off when I go to bed. My coffee makes itself when my house senses that I'm up etc. I posted this experience for people like me who chose a DC and have to learn how to run it. Not necessarily for people who don't have one or don't want one. I didn't waste my money because it was "new and expensive" like you said you did. I researched it and decided that the new was something I wanted to experience and I was willing to shell out the expense for it. You said I learned nothing. Actually I did learn something. 30 minutes to learn to cast using my thumb, and about 5 minutes to learn to adjust a DC reel to cast without using it. There is a learning curve to casting a digital reel. A small one but still I learned something. Fishing is about confidence? The DC reel doesn't give me confidence. If that were the case I'd use my spinning reel. I can do that good. The art of fishing is more about location, conditions, and to some extent luck. The fish will still bite on my worm if I'm confident or not. I don't think they know me well enough to tell. Note: This took me 7 minutes to type. It's 5 inches long on my screen.

Well, I took a few casts this morning from the boat after trolling to a couple of good locations. No thumb, no backlash, the darn thing works. I let the tension control go limp and did use my thumb. It worked okay but it's nice not to have to bother with it. I think I'll keep it. The first photo was of my early start view from my house.

Ya, that would be something. At that distance who would need a boat!

Ha... no I'm not doing 200 ft. It was an expression to mean that it's still not that great yet. I said, "I'm not doing 200 ft but I am doing double my spinning outfit distance". But have you seen those reel comparisons on youtube where guys will put a 3/8 oz weight on and cast 200-210 feet to test reel distances. I think they're using stiff 8 ft poles though.